Disclaimer: I gain nothing but satisfaction and maybe a few kind reviews. Pretty much everything belongs to JKR. Please don't sue me.
A/N: The inspiration for this story came from the following sentence in the TheoDaphne 'We'll Build a Fortress Out of Our Secrets" by somewhat lovely: 'They shared secrets the way other people share clothes; they only spoke to each other about things that no one else knew about.'
"we only spoke in secrets"
she knew nothing but his secrets;
he knew everything she'd never told the world
-:-
- I didn't think I'd make it through alive.
The Hufflepuff champion and Beauxbatons belle have never spoken before the stolen moments in the darkness of the Infirmary the night after the first task, their voices the merest whispers as they waited for their bodies to heal. They speak of how the flames scorched their hair and hands; how the taste of fear hovered in the air as they waited to enter the arena; how many near misses each of them had; and Cedric murmurs over the dread he'd felt when Potter had pulled the vicious Horntail out of the paper bag.
Fleur admits that she'd begun to mourn him the moment his participation in the tournament had been permitted, but now she thinks perhaps his opposition might be formidable yet.
In the quiet of the night, Cedric tells her stories of the Boy Who Lived and the Chamber of Secrets and the strange happenings of Harry's first year and agrees, with no little hope, that she might be right.
- I'm going to marry her one day.
They dance one song together at the ball, and Fleur sees his eyes linger on the indisputably pretty, dark haired witch who arrived on his arm. He admits to her that Cho is The One. Admits how he yearns for the day that she will accept his name (MrsChoDiggory) and his love in return for her heart, which he will treasure for forever and a day. She looks wistfully at him with large blue eyes and wishes them happy, knowing that he means every word sincerely, and it prompts him to ask why she looks so sad.
- I'm scared of being alone; of never finding a man who loves the witch, and not the Veela.
He parts with a bow and a smile, and whispers as he passes that she will find a man who is tall and strong and everything she's never expected, and it will be wonderful perfection, and that good things come to those who wait.
It tempts the barest hint of a smile; she can only hope he will be proven right.
The four students undertake the second task in freezing temperatures, and both Cedric and Fleur have opted for a Bubble-Head Charm to find their way to whatever it has been decided that they would most miss. Cedric is intrigued, but fairly certain he's guessed to what it refers because Cho has not arrived to give him her customary good luck wishes and kiss.
Fleur looks pained; but then, so do they all.
The whistle blows and all sound is overwhelmed by a dull nothingness as the water closes over his head.
He was right; he finds Cho floating eerily beside three others – the Granger girl, the youngest Weasley boy, and a blonde child who can only be related to Fleur. Harry is already there, looking thoroughly unable to choose. Cedric remembers that Harry is best friends with two of them, but gestures for the younger boy to hurry up regardless and busies himself with releasing Cho. He leaves Harry to decide on his own.
The minutes are tense following their appearance at the surface. Harry should be back by now, but instead Fleur is pulled, hysterical, from the water when her distress signal is released ten minutes after Cedric and Cho have left the icy temperatures of the lake. Another ten minutes pass before Krum appears, the top half of his body morphing back from shark to human, a bedraggled Hermione beaming in his arms. There is still no sign of Harry. The five on the platform hold special warming blankets tightly around themselves, huddling to preserve heat.
Finally, frighteningly over time, Harry breaks the surface, and the watchers are stunned to see him with two hostages in tow. Fleur is almost inconsolable in her gratitude as she realises; she quickly wraps her miniature in a blanket before planting grateful kisses all over Harry's reddening face and then turns to Weasley to do the same, though all he did was help the girl onto the floating platform.
The whole lot of them are herded into the medical tent for a proper health check and it's only later that the Hufflepuff and Beauxbatons student find themselves alone. Fleur is still shuddering from the day's ordeal.
- I abhor being beneath the water. When I had only eight years I almost drowned in a lake. I fell through the ice and couldn't find the way out.
She is shattered that she should have failed so badly - not only herself, but her sister (Gabrielle, Cedric learns) also - but the memories of murky water and no way to know up from down had terrified her enough without the Grindylows clawing at her legs and arms, their fingers closing around her pale flesh. She cries, quietly, and Cedric, always a gentleman, wraps his arms around her shoulders and says nothing, because that is what she wants to hear.
- I have a bad feeling about tomorrow.
The night before the third task sees the hallways desolate, and the castle eerily quiet. It's as if the entire world has fallen silent in anticipation for the tournament's final event. Cedric and Fleur are sitting in the library, the only students bar a solitary Ravenclaw and the bright young Gryffindor Hermione Granger (the current apple-of-Krum's-eye, and one of Potter's mates, Cedric remembers).
He's been smiling and laughing all day, telling friends and well-wishers that he's prepared and keen for tomorrow to arrive, but here, in the dim light of the library, in the company of a fellow champion, he admits the truth.
He's nervous; the dread is practically tangible.
He hugs her when they part.
And when his body returns, lifeless, her heartfelt screams of loss are only matched by Cho.
End.
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